Curlers Peterman, Gallant first athletes named to Canada’s 2026 Olympic team

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This article was published 05/05/2025 (512 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO – Curlers Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant are the first athletes named to Canada’s team for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

The husband-and-wife team from Chestermere, Alta., will represent Canada in mixed doubles curling at the Games, Curling Canada and the Canadian Olympic Team announced Monday.

Both curlers competed at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. Gallant was part of Brad Gushue’s team that won bronze in the men’s competition, while Peterman was a member of the Jennifer Jones squad that missed the medal round in the women’s event.

“To be an Olympian once is amazing, but to have the opportunity to do it twice, and also to do it with my husband as a teammate, will be a true privilege, and we just can’t wait to be in Italy next year,” Peterman said in a release.

“We’re excited about the road in front of us, and we will be doing everything we can to prepare ourselves for the Olympics.”

Peterman and Gallant provisionally earned their nomination to the Olympic team by winning the Canadian mixed doubles trials in January.

They secured Canada’s spot in the Olympic tournament with a sixth-place finish last week at the world mixed doubles curling championship in Fredericton.

“Since Jocelyn and I started playing mixed doubles, it’s been our dream to represent Canada at the Winter Olympics as teammates, and we’re going to embrace this opportunity,” Gallant said. “We appreciate that Curling Canada adjusted its qualifying process for mixed doubles in order to provide more time to get ourselves ready for the Games, and we’ll be using that time to the best of our ability to be in peak form in Italy.”

Seven countries joined host Italy, the reigning Olympic champion, in the 10-team field based on qualification points from combined placements at the 2024 and 2025 mixed doubles championships.

The final two spots will be filled following a December qualification event in Kelowna, B.C.

Mixed doubles curling will take place Feb. 4-10 n Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Canada has also secured spots in the women’s and men’s Olympic curling events based on its combined ranking at the 2024 and 2025 world championships for each gender.

The four-person teams will be determined at the 2025 Canadian curling trials that will take place in Halifax from Nov. 22-30.

Canada has won 12 medals, including six gold, since curling officially returned to the Olympic program at the 1998 Nagano Games.

Canada won its lone mixed doubles Olympic medal when John Morris and Kaitlyn Lawes took gold in the debut of the sport in 2018. Morris and Rachel Homan finished fifth in 2022.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2025.